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S5109054Developing your academic thinking and writing skillsAcademic writing skills Introduction This page of my portfolio will discuss about academic writing skills such as structuring an essay, punctuation and grammar. The portfolio will then reflect on how my first formative essay was not based on the topic given but I was off focused on the topic that was to be answered. I will then show and provide the techniques I have used after that to enhance my academic writing skills and improve my writing of essays and the structure approach to written assignments. Concentrating on developing academic writing has set as a pathway for me to plan and structure my assignments properly.RationaleOn my first formative essay I found it really daunting on how to tackle and write a well-structured essay. As a student, I realised that learning to construct a well-written task was one of the main confusing parts of my academic learning. Ways of getting started on a written assignment was the structure which I primary made mistakes and of which at the same time I know is the most vital component of an essay. Missing a precise and well-planned structure can be tremendously challenging to stay focused and improve evaluation (Stella, 2008). Generally, planning an essay summary in advance before you start writing can be effective way of improving academic writing. Nevertheless, it regularly benefits and support to just get it started as this can be beneficial to have an organisational structure before writing to have a vibrant knowledge and understanding of the topic (Hilton, 2003). After we had seminar presenting and displaying us on how to operate skills4studycampus.com I am able to improve up on my academic writing for a better assignment (see skills4studycampus.com example 1a). On the skills4studycampus, I learnt that essays are typically focused on a topic and how to discuss a topic in depth by enhancing and structuring ideas and how to evaluate topics from diverse angles. As a new student in Higher Education, I found out that planning an essay is useful as this will lead me to focus through my academic writing development. In the beginning of an essay, planning and structuring your essay can be useful by using linear plan approach. A linear plan is a convenient way of organising evidence and facts in a coherent arrangement in which one idea distinctly directs to another. This may keep you on track by joining each point together to structure a logical paragraph as each sentences and paragraph contribute to the previous one. (Janet, 2014). According to Neville (2010), student nurses who do extraordinarily well are those who take positive method to critics and student who set themselves accurate goals. Majority of student nurses can attain good results if they take on effective plans to develop their opportunities of achieving high grades (Hellen, 2016). On the other hand, Dee, Bell and Peacock (2010) emphasised that reacting and taking feedback in to account in the right way and not taking criticisms directly will be predominantly helpful if you feel you are not achieving your expected grades, as the feedback would give you the direction you need to focus to be able to enhanced written assignments. (See evidence 1b).Reflection I used linear planning for my assignment, as this help me know roughly how many words I will be writing on each section and paragraph. On my first assignment which was about 2000 words, which I typed about 300 words on a sheet of an A4 sheet. I am now familiar and understood that my assignment would be about 6 pages long with the help of the linear plan. I do this before I have even begun any research on the topic.My linear plan has help me keep on track on my ideas and enhance me to figure out how little, or far, I require to note and explore for each section of the topic or essay. Before I start writing my assignment, I already know what I will be exploring and discussing, the direction I would be heading towards to, and how many words I will be using for each point. I regularly begin assignments by note taking in lectures and seminars. I use the notes as a foundation for my plan. After the notes I then reflect on the key words on the topic as this will help me stay focus. I also make sure I use colours and connecting lines as a linkage to collect evidence of information I needed.I find it helpful after I complete my linear plan, as this help me to judge on how many information I will write on each section. It is extremely vital for me as to have a strong construction of my essay and know how many words count I have left for each section of my assignment. As a student nurse, I have experienced in my previous assignments that I do not essentially have to spend a lot of time in my assignment, but I must be more alert of what precisely the essay is expected by properly knowing the task. Start from hereNo matter how well you plan an assignment, you may still face unexpected challenges. For example: books you want may not be available in the libraryTry to see such challenges as opportunities rather than obstacles. The challenge may be unexpected and not what you would have wished for, but how can you take a positive, active approach in responding to it? What can you learn from the experience?Whether the comments are positive or negative, they can help you improve your work. Naturally, if your tutor makes negative comments you may feel discouraged, but try not to take the comments personally – instead, focus on the issues behind the words and try to use the feedback constructively.Highlight any comments that you feel will be useful to you as you start your next piece of workOngoing future development It will be easier to deliver what is required of you in an assignment if you understand what your tutor is looking for. Successful students generally spend more time than others at the start of each assignment working out exactly what the writing task requires: by matching their writing closely to the purpose of the assignment, theyI am going to start to use broader journal academic search result because my literature searching has narrow.